Stencil cutting device for photocomposing apparatus



M. E. MiLLER July 17, 1951 STENCIL bu'r'rmc DEVICEFORPHOTOCQMPOSINGAPPARATUS 4 Sheet S- -Sheet 1 Filed Dec 15, 1948 v E N R 0 T A NEEsheets-sheet 2 W MM 7 mm mm M. E. MILLER STENCIL CUTTING DEVICE.PHQTOCOMPOSING' APPARATUS July 17, 1951 Filed Dec. 15, 1948 July 17,1951 M. E. MILLER 2,561,216

STENCIL CUTTING DEVICE FOR PHOTOCOMPOSING APPARATUS Filed Dec. 15, 19484 Sheets-Sheet 3 3! l3 l2 a Z 0 121 f F \l\ m 1N5 I 7 51" F a Z 45 46 47I] I) l6 July 17, 1951 M, mLLER 2,561,216

STENCIL CUTTING DEVICE FOR PHQTOCO'MPOSING APPARATUS Filed Dec. 15, 1948Sheets-Sheet 4 ATTORNEY;

Patented July 17, 1951 UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE STENCIL CUTTINGDEYICE-FOR. PHOTO- QO QSI A ARATUS,

Maurice E.'Millcr, Addison, N. Y. Application December 15, 1943, S,e1'ial No.fi5,336

4'Glaims.

1 The present invention relates to lithographic or offset printing, andmore particularly to the production of a photographic image of thefinished composition to be printed, without the use of hand-set ormachine-set type. In the production of any such composition,photographically and without the use of actual'type, amost seriousproblem consists in justifying the lines, 'or in other words, in sospacing the letters and words that each line is even in appearance andends exactly at the right-hand margin of the column. By theapparatus'of'the present invention this may be easily and preciselyaccomplished.

As is Well known, printers type of any particular font vary in widthaccording to the width of the characters represented. Therefore, in

producing a photographic image of line of printing, without the use ofactual type but by individually photographing the characters onto a filmwhich is advanced intermittently, it is necessary that each movement ofthe film shall of movable stop members which are moved out of alignmentwith the fixed stop member. The

number of movable members affected in each "instance is in turn governedby the width of the "character to be photographed, through the medium ofa plurality of members of varying widths which are selectively engagedwith said movable stop members to elevate them out of alignment with thefixed stop member. The

members of varying widths may conveniently take the form of typehammers, generally similar to those of a typewriter, arranged inasemicircular bank, and each bearing the representation of a characteror a blank representing ,a space. Upon the same movement of a typehammer which determines the extent of the next movement of the carriage,the face of "the type hammer may be automatically photographed onto theaforesaid film.

In order to effect the automatic operations aforesaid, it is convenientto employ a stencil which is cut on a separate unit of the apparatus,which must also make provision for justifying the lines. To accomplishthis,-a similar arrangef nent of movable carriage and bank ofjtype.vided for moving both carriage ,and ste 2 hammers'is employed, the typehammers in -thi s instance jbeing manually actuated to simulta-,neouslyv cutthe stencil and to produce, on a sheet of proof papersupported on a platen securedto the movable. carriage, a printed ortyped proof of the material being set up. Here ,again ,flthetype'hammers vary in width according .to the characters which they bear,and means areprotween words, together with means ior J the, stencil atthe end of each line of proothe amount of additional space to beinsertedfbetween words being determined by compar'ingtlle jtyped proofline with a fixed scale. Means are provided for altering the stencil,atthecgmpletion of each line of composition, by insertingad: .di'tion'a1space between Words as may be necesserv- "The present application isdirected particularly to the carriage-control mechanism used both in thestencil-cutting and photographic units.

Accordingly, it is the general object of the present invention toprovide apparatus of the connection with the accompanying drawings in-which Figure 1 is a plan view of the stencil cutting unit. of thepresent invention;

"Figure 2 is agsection on line 2-2 oi l'gligure 1 "Figure "2agis adetail view showing th means for bringing aboutan increased ad iancepithe stencil when the word space key is pressed;

Figure 3-is an enlarged fragmentary sec'tion on'lin'e .3,3 of Figure l;

jli igure, 4 'is a section on line 4 4 oiEji-gure 1 Figure 5 is afragmentary section onjlinQl5r- 5 of Figure 1.;

Ijigure, 6 is ,a fragmentary section on line iii-:16 o rigu iz;

Figure? is a fragmentary.section ongline 'l.-,T.'l of Figure .1;

Figure '8 is a view partly in elevation and partly in section of the.spline carriage .o f the device of Figure 1';

"Figure 9 is, an enlargedsectional view of. a

portion of the spline and spline carriage oi Ingu 8;

,T F igure 10. is, a sectional view illustrating a single spline in thespline carriage 'f F'i j Eigurell is ,a perspective view illusratin 3group of splines arranged as in the carriage of Figure 8;

Figure 12 is a section on line I2-I2 of Figure 1;

Figure 13 is a partial plan view of a stencil cut by the device ofFigures 1-12; and

Figure 14 is a circuit diagram for the device of Figures 1-12.

In order to facilitate an understanding of the invention, reference ismade to the embodiments thereof shown in the accompanying drawings, anddetailed descriptive language is employed. It will nevertheless beunderstood that no limitation of the invention is thereby intended andthat various changes and alterations are contemplated such as wouldordinarily occur to one skilled in the art to which the inventionrelates.

Referring to Figures 1-14, inclusive, the stencil-cutting device, whichin many respects resembles a standard typewriter, comprises generally aframe In which may take any suitable form and includes longitudinal,transverse and vertical supporting and retaining members as required; afixed guideway consisting of guides I I and I2 supported on the frameIll; a carriage I3 movable in the guides II and I2 and carrying a platenI4; a bank of type hammers I5 each bearing a printing character such asa letter, numeral, space or punctuation mark, etc., and each adapted tobe operated by a key I6; means beneath the bank of keys It forintermittently advancing a stencil I! which may consist of paper ofsuitable strength and texture; means associated with said keys andhammers for puncturing said stencil with a, series of aperturescorresponding to the keys struck; a space bar I8, having means forpuncturin said stencil to indicate word spaces and which also operates atype hammer having a blank face corresponding to a wordspaoe; and a bankof space plungers or punch rods I9 for puncturing or punching saidstencil to indicate additional spaces between words for the purpose ofjustifying the lines of print in the final photographic film.

In the operation of the stencil-cutter the type hammers I5 serve, withthe aid of the usual typewriter ribbon 20, to record on the proof paper2I the sequence of characters struck and, therefore, the nature of thestencil which is simultaneously cut. An important difference from theconventional typewriter, however, resides in the fact that the typehammers l5 vary in width according to the width of the characters whichthey bear, just as in the case of printers type. Therefore, thecharacters recorded on the proof paper 2| are evenly spaced as inprinting rather than unevenly spaced as in typewriting. This feature, ofcourse, requires unequal movements of the carriage I3, which are broughtabout in the manner to be described.

The carriage I3 is, as described above, movable between the guides IIand I2, and is biased to the left by means of a spring 22 and tape 23.Return of the carriage to its right-hand position is accomplished bypressure on the lever 24 which also, in the conventional manner,simultaneously advances or rotates the platen I4 to the extent of a linespace. Control of the leftward or writing movements of the carriage I3is secured by the cooperation of a fixed stop member 25 (Figures 3, 8,12) which is in the form of an elongated flat bar paralleling the guidesII, I2, and a large number of thin, platelike movable. stop members 26supported within the carriage I 3, which movable stop members,

4 for convenience, will hereinafter be referred to as splines. The formof the individual splines 26 is best seen in Figure 11.

The splines 26, each of which is of a thickness corresponding to amultiple of a printer's point (.014") are supported within the carriagel3 as best seen in Figures 2, 3 and 8, and are maintained in closerelationship under slight pressure by springs 27 (Figure 8). Each splineis formed with a depending tongue 28-, and an upwardly projecting lug 29(Figure 11). The tongues 28 are uniformly located for cooperation withthe end of the fixed stop 25, while the lugs 29 are staggered as seen inFigure 11, for cooperation with leaf springs 30 (Figures 9 and 10)secured to the cover 3| of the carriage I 3, for maintainin the splines26 normally in their lowermost position. At the beginning of a line, i.e., when carriage I3 is in its extreme righthand position, all of thesplines are in lowered position and the leftwardmost spline is incontact with the right-hand end of fixed stop member 25, restraining thecarriage from movement to the left.

Each type hammer I5 has a head portion I5 which is of a thickness also amultiple of a point, and is adapted, when elevated into a position wherea character is struck on the proof paper 2|, to engage the tongues 28 ofa certain number of splines corresponding to the thickness of thehammer, raising those splines, within the carriage I3, until the tonguesare clear of the stop member 25, thus permitting the carriage to moveleftward to the extent of the thickness of the affected splines. At thesame time, by virtue of the punch rod 32, one of which is associatedwith each lever I6, a hole is punched in the stencil II corresponding,by its lateral position, to the character which is printed on the proofpaper. To facilitate the punching operation, the stencil I! passesbetween upper and lower guides 33, 34 each of which is apertured toreceive any one of the punch rods 32 as it is depressed by pressure onits corresponding key 16.

In order to ensure smooth operation of the device, it is desirable toemploy means to prevent the carriage from moving during that portion ofthe type hammer stroke while the hammer is in contact with the splines.Likewise, it is necessary to ensure that the affected splines remain inraised position after the hammer recedes and while the carriage ismoving to the left. To this end, I employ a solenoid actuated cam 35(Figure 1), the solenoid 36 being energized through the operation of aswitch 3'! which is closed by the type hammer as the latter approachescontact with the platen I l (Figure 2). The cam 35 exerts pressure ontwo braking devices, 3B (Figure 2), which acts on the carriage I3, and39 which acts on the newly raised splines. The cam .55 is so shaped thatthe pressure on the brake 38 is both applied and released slightlybefore the equivalent effects upon the brake 38.

Advance of the stencil sheet is accomplished by means of teeth on theroll 40 (Figure 2) which engage feed holes in the edge of the stencilsheet, the roll 40 being rotated the space of one tooth by eachactuation of a type hammer. The plunger 4| (Figure 7) is provided withtwo pawls 42 adapted to engage teeth 43 on the opposite end of roll 4i]to that which engages the feed holes of the stencil.

The plunger 4! is surmounted by a rod 44 which extends laterally of themachine so as to be acted on by any lever l6 which may be depressed,whereby the plunger is lowered to the extent that, upon its returnmovement, the roll is rotated to the extent of one tooth 33. Uponactuation of the space key '58, however, and for reasons to behereinafter explained, the plunger M is depressed further, by contactwith the projection ml of the space bar lever it (Figure 2a), so thatits return motion rotates the roll it) to the extent of two teeth &3,wherefore the stencil I7 is advanced twice the normal distance. Thespace key [8 is provided with a punch rod which punctures the stencil ITin a location which indicates a normal space between words.

The justifying apparatus comprises four rows of punch rods generallyindicated at 19 (Figure 1), the rows being designated 45, 46, 51 and 48,respectively, the rows corresponding to l-point, 2-point, 3-point and4-point spaces. The stencil guides 33 and it, which underlie the rods59, are provided with holes corresponding to each of the rods of therows Q5, 36, 47 and 43, and the guide 3 is electrically wound so as,when the winding is energized, to constitute an electro-magnet forattracting the steel punch rods is. A convenient key as (Figure 1)actuates a switch it (Figure 14) which controls the electro-magnetcircuit.

As previously described, each actuation of the space key l3 punches thestencil to indicate a word space, advances the carriage IS acorresponding distance, and also advances the stencil double the normaldistance. Therefore, when a line of text has been punched in the stencilthere will be a certain number of space apertures in the stencil, eachof which will underlie one of the rods of the row 48. If, now, the keyis is depressed, the guide plate 34 will be magnetized and each of therods it) which corresponds to one of the Word-space holes in the stencilwill be drawn down through the corresponding hole, thus indicating thelocation of the word-spaces. The operator now has recourse to a fixedpointer 50 (Figure 2) and scale 5! on the carriage 53, by means of whichhe may ascertain the number of points of space necessary to justify theline. Assuming that the line of text consists of seven words, there aresix word-spaces and assuming that thirteen points of additional spaceare necessary to justify the line, it is apparent that five of theword-spaces must be increased by two points each, and the sixth by threepoints. For this purpose, each rod [9 of each row id-t8 is seriallynumbered. In order to insert an additional two-point space between eachcontiguous pair of the first six words, the operator will depress eachnext lower numbered rod of row 46 than the rods of row 38 which indicatethe word spaces in question. To insert a 3-point space in the lastword-space he will depress a rod in row i'i which is serially numberedone number lower than the last depressed rod in row 48. By this actionthe additional holes are punched in the stencil, in appropriatelocation, to indicate the required additional points of space to justifythe line. The strip of stencil may now be severed by the knife device 55(Figure l) preparatory to feeding it to the photographic apparatus. Byreference to the typewritten proof the operator may ascertain if anyerrors have been made and, if so, may discard the stencil and reset theline of text.

The photo-compositor, like the stencil cutter, comprises a bank of typehammers of varying widths, and a carriage whose movements are controlledby means of the cooperation er a plurality of movable splines with saidhammers. Unlike the stencil cutter, however, "the photocompositor iswholly automatic, once the "controlling stencil has been introduced. Thetype hammers are provided wi'th faces "corresponding to "an of thehammers 15 of the stencil cutting device, including blank facescorresponding "to 1-, 2-, '3- and 4-point spaces or'multip'les thereof.A fixed camera serves to photograph each type face, 'as it'is'el'e'vated into focus, upon a movable in the automatic operation ofthe photo-compositor.

Having thus described the invention, what is: claimed as new and desiredto be secured by Letters Patent is:

1. In apparatus of the character described, in. combination, atypewriting machine having a.

movable carriage, a bank of type hammers of.

varying widths corresponding to the widths of? the charactersrepresented, means associated.

with said type hammers for controlling the movements of said carriageaccording to the width: of the type hammer actuated, means for actuatingsaid type hammers, means associated with said last means for advancing astencil sheet and for perforating the same in accordance with thecharacter represented by the type hammer actuated, and a space keyassociated with said stencil advancing means and adapted when struck toactuate a type hammer, to perforate said stencil and to actuate saidadvancing means to advance said stencil twice the distance it isadvanced when another type hammer is actuated.

2. In combination with the apparatus of claim 1, a plurality of rows ofpunch rods overlying said stencil, each of said rows corresponding to adifferent width printers space, and means for causing a rod of one ofsaid rows to enter each perforation made in said stencil by actuation ofsaid space key after a line of printing has been cut in said stencil,thereby indicating the location of Word spaces therein, the rods of saidother rows being operable to form additional perforations in saidstencil to indicate additional spaces required to justify said line.

3. In combination with apparatus according to claim 1, line-justifyingmeans comprising an electro-magnet having a plurality of rows of holesformed therein, a plurality of rows of punch rods supported above and inregistry with said holes, means for positioning a previously cut stencilwith its word-space perforations in registry with one of said rows, andmeans for energizing said magnet to cause the rods corresponding to saidword-spaces to descend through said perforations, said remaining rodsbeing operable to form additional space perforations in said stencil.

4. In apparatus of the character described, a carriage movable along afixed guideway, means for moving said carriage, means for controllingthe said movement including a bank of type hammers, means formoving'said type hammers comprising finger tabs and linkages connectingsaid tabs and said hammers, means for intermittently advancing a stencilsheet beneath said linkages, punch rods associated with said linkagesand adapted to perforate said stencil'when said tabs are depressed, anda space key associated with said stencil advancing means and adaptedwhen struck to actuate a type hammer, to perforate said stencil and toactuate said advancing means to advance said stencil twice the distanceit is advanced when another type hammer is actuated.

MAURICE E. MILLER.

REFERENCES CITED The following references are of record in the file ofthis patent:

UNITED STATES PATENTS Number Name Date 851,504 Drewell Apr. 23, 1907953,988 Drewell Apr. 5, 1910 988,984 Drewell Apr. 11, 1911 10 1,106,638Drewell Aug. 11, 1914 1,136,082 Driscoll Apr. 20, 1915

